This section is for discussions with other women who have probably been through the same signs/symptoms that you may be experiencing. Please note, we cannot offer medical advice and encourage members to discuss their concerns with their doctors. New members, come on in and introduce yourself!

I had a perfect pregnancy for the first 24 weeks, and then suddenly got diagnosed with Preeclampsia and 2 weeks later I had our son at 26 weeks, 4 days. He spent 75 days in the NICU but is 6 months actual, 3 months adjusted now and has no problems at all. My husband and I are starting to talk about having a second baby and I'm wondering what a high risk pregnancy is like with appointments and what not? I know i'll be high risk next time and that there's more appointments involved, but I just wanted to get an idea of exactly what others' experience has been during a high risk pregnancy.

Hello and welcome Glad to hear your son is doing well despite his early arrival. How are you doing? Has your BP returned to normal? Or are you still on medication? If you are thinking of having another baby, I'd suggest you make an appointment with a MFM for a preconception consult. A MFM is (maternal fetal medicine specialist, also called a perinatologist, a high-risk OB) will assess your current health, your medical background and will go over your case of preeclampsia. Based on all that info, s/he will let you know how likely it will be that you will develop PE again. During the consult you can then also discuss your care during pregnancy, and how often you'd be seen, what tests will be done. It will be a good idea to get a BP cuff, so you can take your BP at home and report any unusual readings to your doctor. You also want to familiarize will all the signs and symptoms of PE (https://www.preeclampsia.org/signs-and-symptoms). Emotionally, pregnancy after PE is hard. It can be scary and there will be days of panic and anxiety. It will be important to have a good network of family and friends who will understand, and a doctor whom you trust.

If you have any other questions, let us know and we will try our best to answer them.

Glad to hear your son is healthy & doing well, I also agree that you need to get a preconception appt with a good maternal fetal medicine dr or perinatalogist. I am currently in a pregnancy after having hellp & eclampsia and unfortunately our first daughter didn't make it. This pregnancy thus far has been very good but terrifying & filled with anxiety. I was being seen every 2-3 weeks since week 5 by my MFM and since 20 weeks weekly. I have growth ultrasounds every 4 weeks and have labs drawn weekly as well. I also have her cell number and she is very approachable and I am able to text her if I have any questions and I usually get a response within 2-3 hrs.

With this range if diseases unfortunately there's no way of knowing what and how severely things could occur so just taking each day at a time and being monitored closely is all anyone can do. Did they run all your clotting factors and autoimmune panel? I tested negative but am still on lovenox 40mg once daily and baby aspirin, but a lot of drs have different views on that so it's really specific to your case and your dr...

During my last pregnancy, I was seeing a regular OBGYN and then when she saw my preeclampsia wasn't slowing down, they sent me to a hospital with a level 3 NICU to stay in the high risk department, and I was assigned a MFM just by being there. They did bloodwork to check for clotting factors and what not, but before they got the tests back, I had to have an emergency c-section, and no one ever notified me of the results.

At my follow up appointment with my regular OBGYN after the c-section, I asked if I needed to find a high risk doctor for the next pregnancy and she told me that I could still come to their office, but since I would definitely be high risk, I would have a lot more appointments and ultrasounds. I've made an conception consultation appointment with their office. Should I make one back with the MFM also?

I have a blood pressure cuff from where I started to get Pre-e before and wanted to keep an eye on how high my BP was getting. The times that I have checked my BP since then, it has been just slightly above normal. My BP was always right at 120/80 before I got pre-e the first time. Is stress something that triggers an onset of preeclampsia or is it purely pregnancy induced?

Stress might not be beneficial, but it is not the cause of PE. It is a matter of the placenta not implanting properly. Experts talk about a shallow implantation. There are a lot of old threads around this topic. If you use the search function, you can find lots of info.Perhaps you can ask for your old records from the hospital, so your doctor will have all the info on the already conducted tests. I recommend seeing a MFM. Their job is to deal with high-risk pregnancies only and usually feel more comfortable when it gets 'complicated'. Some see both the regular OB and the MFM and some only see the MFM during a subsequent pregnancy. I opted for the latter. It was easier to only see one rather than two doctors.